ThunderStruck: WWE B-Show Rundown With Jee-S 05/10/13

Jee-S is here with me this week covering both NXT and Main Event, and I’m covering Smackdown as usual! I couldn’t be happier to have him on the team every week from here on out! Enjoy!

NXT REVIEW 05/07/13

First off, I just want to say thank you to everyone who read my reviews for your patience and understanding. I’m sorry that I haven’t been around the past two weeks due to finals and papers. It was a hectic time but now I’m back for good! As a huge fan of the show, I’m very excited to cover NXT from now on. Let’s do this!

Thoughts: Honestly, this was a boring match. Not that I have anything to say against Sandow who lived up to expectations as usual; I just really wasn’t impressed with this Baron Corbin guy. From what the commentators were saying, he’s a former NFL player and that’s probably why he lacks wrestling skills and mindset. It was his debut; he still has a lot to learn and hopefully he becomes a good prospect in the future. I’m just hoping this will be the worst performance he ever has in WWE.

Sandow challenges Big E Langston for the NXT Championship next week.

Thoughts: Well geez, I wasn’t expecting that. That shouldn’t be too bad at all; I’m psyched for next week!

Paige defeats Bayley with the Paige Turner. Summer Rae attacks Paige after the bell and leaves.

Thoughts: Why can’t the WWE Divas division be like this? NXT Divas (or in Paige’s case, Anti-Diva) make me sit through every single one of their matches every time week after week! All three of these ladies have the potential to be Divas Champion one day. Bayley’s new but impressive in the ring; she just has to work on her character development seeing as she has none right now. Summer Rae has the character part covered and her wrestling skills are improving every day. Paige…well let’s just say she’s been ready for a long time. I’m excited for her to turn 21 years old this summer so we can finally see her in a WWE ring. Great match!

Briley Pierce vs. Sakamoto ends in a No Contest when Conor O’Brian comes out and lays both of them out.

Thoughts: Well that sucks. Both Pierce and Sakamoto were off to a great start. O’Brian bores me at times; he has a very colorful persona but his in-ring work is nothing to write home about. I enjoyed his time with Kenneth Cameron as the tag team called “The Ascension” but I’m not sure if I like him as a main event star on that program. I guess I’ll just have to see more of him. On the bright side, he did a good job beating the two wrestlers up. I see some potential in Briley Pierce (Ziggler’s little brother) and Sakamoto.

Kassius Ohno defeats Camacho with the Kassius Clutch. Ohno then apologizes to William Regal. He gets interrupted by the Wyatt Family only to have a staredown with Bray Wyatt. He gets attacked by the Family and Bray Wyatt hits his finisher on him.

Thoughts: I’ve never been high on Camacho but this wasn’t a bad match for him(probably because of who he was in the ring with). Kassius Ohno delivers a clinic every time he hits the ring. He can make both himself and his opponent look great as we saw with this match. You have to like the storylines on NXT though: this apology by Ohno followed by Wyatt’s attack means a face turn for the former Chris Hero and that hopefully will lead up to some outstanding matches between them. I’m excited to see what lies ahead for this rivalry!

Luke Harper and Eric Rowan defeat Adrian Neville and Bo Dallas for the NXT Tag Team Championships when Luke Harper hits the Lariat on Dallas. They pose with Bray Wyatt in the ring as NXT goes off the air.

Thoughts: Good match. I personally don’t like what Bo Dallas brings to the ring; I think his moveset (especially his finisher) is weak and non-believable. Also he seems lost sometimes in the middle of his matches. As for Harper and Rowan, I see in Luke Harper a slightly superior wrestler but their characters as Bray Wyatt’s servants or whatever they are makes them very relevant. Neville is roster ready for sure. All four of these guys told a good story in this match as the rivalry has been boiling for quite some time now and the conclusion makes for awesome NXT episodes in the future.

Final thoughts: The main event was solid, the divas match was highly entertaining and the rest was alright at best. I take it I didn’t choose the right episode to make my NXT review debut as I give it a very average mark of 6/10. I will be back for next week’s episode!

WWE Main Event Review 05/08/13

Randy Orton beats Antonio Cesaro with the R.K.O.

Thoughts: Great match! These two gave us something that seemed to be slow paced at first but it picked up very quickly and gave us an awesome bout. A lot of twists, turns, spots and crowd involvement. I think this drew a pretty good picture of what it will look when Antonio Cesaro makes his way up to the main event scene which is what has been teased lately and I couldn’t be happier. Let’s face it, Cesaro is definitely in the top wrestlers of the company and can deliver fantastic performances against just about anyone the WWE has to offer. Fantastic way to start Main Event!

Recap portion of the show…

Thoughts: Simple: too many recaps. I honestly don’t know how you can watch Main Event and not watch RAW; therefore, the long recap frenzy should cease and be replaced with some more wrestling. I would be pretty happy with a decent backstage segment too, thank you very much.

Justin Gabriel and The Usos defeat 3MB when Gabriel hits the 450 Splash on McIntyre.

Thoughts: Awesome performance from everybody in this match! Fast paced, fun moves and wonderful spots the whole time. All of them should be on TV. The Usos should be serious contenders for the tag titles, 3MB should win more often and Justin Gabriel should be a threat to either one of the midcard titles. Speaking of Gabriel, is it me or has he become a regular on Main Event? I’m not complaining, though. These superstars gave us an exciting, high octane match that closes Main Event in a great way!

Final thoughts: One of the best episodes I’ve had the chance to cover since I started doing this. Both matches were exciting in their own way and they set the bar higher for the episodes that will follow. Thank you for reading!

Smackdown Analysis 05/10/13 by Joe Thunder

Chris Jericho opens Smackdown with the highlight reel. He brings out Ryback as his guest. Ryback and Jericho end up arguing because apparently nothing Jericho says can make Ryback happy. Teddy Long interrupts them when things get heated and books them in a one on one match tonight. Ryback hits Jericho with a cheap shot after the announcement.

^Ryback was bland, and Jericho was his usual talkative self. Things weren’t overly heated when Teddy Long came out to calm them down, and why was he out there again anyway? Doesn’t Booker T run the show? Not a terrible opening segment to set up the main event, but far from the best.

Cody Rhodes goes one on one with Kofi Kingston. Kofi wins the match using trouble in paradise.

^Too short to give much praise to, but the match definitely had potential. Thanks for killing more of my optimism, WWE!

Zeb Colter speaks on behalf of Jack Swagger and says that Swagger will teach “blondie’s bodyguard” a lesson tonight.

^Zeb speaking for Swagger is growing beyond tiring. I probably said that before. The show just isn’t impressing me like it did last week and even the week before. Let’s pick up the action here!

Jack Swagger goes one on one with Big E. Langston. Alberto Del Rio is on commentary. Del Rio throws a ladder in the ring and a brawl ensues. No match takes place and Del Rio stands tall with the World Title at the top of the ladder when the segment ends.

^Well, we got action, but no wrestling. It looked like Ziggler’s head came off when that ladder hit him; no wonder he has a concussion. I was hoping to see Swagger and Langston put together an actual wrestling match, but we’ll just have to wait for that one.

Dean Ambrose defeats Daniel Bryan by DQ after Kofi Kingston joins the battle between the Shield and Team Hell No.

^Easily the best wrestling of the show! This one felt like it ended too soon, but I definitely wasn’t expecting a clean finish in this match. Having Kofi run down makes me think we’ll have a six man at Extreme Rules, and THAT is something that gets me pumped up! Good teaser overall for Bryan/Ambrose wrestling!

A video from earlier in the day is shown of Mark Henry pulling a 50,000 pound tractor trailer. We come back from the commercial and Mark Henry is able to pull TWO of the 50,000 pound tractor trailers simultaneously and apparently sets a world record.

^Henry is a beast, and letting that man talk is the best thing WWE ever did for his character. You’d think WWE would learn from something like this. Henry becomes more and more likeable as he continues his run with the microphone as the badass heel who can lift automobiles.

Randy Orton is interviewed backstage and says there will be antidote for what he does to the Big Show at Extreme Rules.

^Clever Randy and his clever wording. Viper. Antidote. Brilliant. See the definition of sarcasm. Orton is best when he just doesn’t talk, heel or face.

Big Show defeats Tensai/Sweet T with the KO punch. He gets into it with Brodus Clay after the match but receives an RKO from Randy Orton before he can punch out Clay.

^Show’s dominance made this a squash, and putting over his rivalry with Orton was the point of this segment. I still think it should have been a sumo match.

Kaitlyn/AJ/Natalya/Khali segment dealing with Kaitlyn not knowing who her secret admirer is.

^Khali isn’t funny, no matter how hard he tries. Kaitlyn is clearly being set up, but I wonder if it’s AJ or the Bellas. Why isn’t Natalya wrestling anymore? Come to think of it, why are none of the divas wrestling on this show?

Chris Jericho defeats Ryback by DQ when Ryback delivers an atomic drop on Y2J into the ringpost. Ryback throws/clotheslines Jericho over the announce table to end the show.

^Ryback worked a solid match with Jericho, and I’m becoming more and more impressed with him every time I see him wrestle. Nice work by WWE of improving his in ring skills and teaching him about ring psychology. Great job by Jericho of making Ryback look good as well!

Two good matches and a bunch of squashes mixed with non-matches and feud enhancers. Not the best Smackdown we’ve seen as of late, but certainly not dreadful either. Thanks again to Jee-S for joining me with the NXT and Main Event reviews! Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!

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Did you Know?

WrestleMania VII was moved from the Rose Bowl to the Sports Arena in Los Angeles because Vince McMahon feared a sniper might try and take out lead heel Sgt. Slaughter, playing the role of an Iraqi sympathizer during the Gulf War.